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Forum:Some simplifications I'd like to suggest
Hi, I'm new, I guess, and I'm keen to get stuck in with contributing to the Wiki, mainly with the pages on the original comics series. While I'm getting on with that, there are a couple of things I've noticed that I feel are largely just clutter and could do with removing. But I figured I'd ask before wading in and making changes. The main one is that each story/issue's article has several dozen categories tagged along the bottom. These are mostly all of the nature 'Character (RAH) Appearances'. Given that each article has (or should have) a table listing each appearing character, these seems rather redundant. The category pages themselves seem like a waste of space. This one for instance: Category:Ramon Escobedo/Appearances. These lists of appearances are just information that should be covered and linked to by the detailed bios on each character's own page. The other immediate thing that's struck my attention is that each issue's article also has about four expandable boxes at the bottom, showing maps of all issues in that continuity (divided by publisher). This also seems like clutter to me - it's definitely something that should be on the main article for that continuity family, but having it on each article seems unnecessary, especially if there are clear links to the next and previous issues. Thoughts? Danja 13:04, September 21, 2010 (UTC) :The "Appearances" categories are, as you suggested, linked to the table listing everyone who appeared in the episode or issue - anything that gets linked in there also gets a Category of its appearances. And yes, for short-term characters like Ramon Escabado, there will only ever be a few things that make it onto the page, and they could all be linked from his page. But consider a more popular character; off the top of my head, Barbecue. How many episodes of the cartoon did he appear in and not have a major role in the plot? How often was he in the background of a crowd scene in the comics? If someone loves Barbecue and wants to collect all his appearances, should they have to wait until we can insert a dozen "he was in this issue doing nothing(link). Then he was in THIS issue doing nothing (link)" lines? Why not give them a page accessible from, say, "The Viper Is Coming" that will show hem everything their beloved character has done? :Similarly, yes, each comic issue has clear links to the previous and next issues in its own series, but people aren't always interested in reading every entry. If someone wants to jump around, they can. If they want to read about issue 36, then 36½, then issue 37, they can, even though the "next issue" link would skip the "half" issue entirely. Heck, if they want to read about issue 27, then issue 92, then issue 4, they can do that, too. :In both cases, the idea is to have an ease of links - there's nothing that says there should only be one way to follow a series of links that will get you to the page you want. The fans who want to read the character's bio to find out everywhere they've appeared can do that; the fans who want to go to the main page about a comic series to see all the issues can do that; but the fans who want more immediate access to the info have it, without having to backtrack or dig through the site in order to find what they want. Like you, I wasn't thrilled when the categories were introduced, because it seemed to needlessly crowd up the bottom of the page, but really - it's the bottom of the page; the information is useful to have, and though it does take up a big chunk of real estate, it's real estate that doesn't matter. --buttbutt 17:14, September 21, 2010 (UTC) ::Those are actually fairly good reasons. I shall learn to live with the links. Danja 19:09, September 21, 2010 (UTC)